VP of engineering is the best paid role in some Singaporean startups

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If you think the CEO is the highest paid official in a startup, think again.

VC firm Monk’s Hill recently spoke to 13 tech startups about compensation in Singapore and the results were interesting. One of the highlights was that the vice president of engineering is the “best paid” role by median base salary.

This comes as no surprise though, according to Monk’s Hill partner Kuo-Yi Lim. “Most C-level folks are also founders and tend not to pay themselves the most. In fact, two-thirds of our respondents have CEOs that are not the best-paid person in their team,” he writes in a blog post.

He explains that the role of VP Engineering is hard to fill and often the first “expensive” hire made by startups.

The VC found the average base salary of C-level execs in Singaporean startups to be over S$9,000 (US$6,580) per month, while that of VPs is between S$6,000 (US$4,380) and S$7,000 (US$5,115).

It also found that the CTO’s salary is most strongly correlated to the amount of funding a startup secures – that means the salary goes up as funding increases. The COO exhibits the weakest correlation.

Monk’s Hill interviewed founders of startups based in Singapore, whose key staff are located in Singapore, and have raised series A stage or past it.